Captain Marisol Chalas

Astronaut

"A World Like No Other" introduces you to the job of astronaut in the Army.

You know when I was six years old, that's when we were first putting men on the moon, and every kid my age wanted to be an astronaut. Colonel Tim Kopra, U.S. Army, and I'm an Astronaut.

Once I started serving in the Army, working at Fort Campbell and in Germany and Desert Storm. Always in the back of my mind was this idea that maybe someday I could achieve this childhood dream of becoming an Astronaut.

I lived under water for a week. I've spent ten weeks learning [sic] Russian language. Water survival in a Soluse capsule. I've done winter survival with [sic] Russians, spent time in Japan and Canada.

You know, there was a time when the space race was really about competition. We've transitioned into a period of cooperation. With the international space nation, it is by far the most complex engineering development and marvel that man has ever created.

There are very few boring days in my job, but I think all of us recognize that there is a huge element of risk in what we do. The safest space program is one where you don't fly, but all of us within the space business recognize that, one, it's worth it, and two, everybody's working as absolutely as hard as they can to mitigate risk.

Space is really a team sport. We all have to work together to make this happen. It's not just the three or six people that you have on space station - not just the seven people you have on the shuttle. The team that gets us to space is huge.

Within the next ten years, we will very hopefully be back on the moon learning all the things that we need to go onto Mars.